Head over to the @HeyPlaystation Twitter and get a chance to win an epic Star Wars package that includes all four Star Wars classic games, a limited edition custom box for your PS4, a voucher code for the digital deluxe version of Star Wars Battlefront, all six Star Wars movies, and a PS4 system! Follow @HeyPlayStation on Twitter to learn how to enter.

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/04/28/star-wars-on-playstation-store-new-ps2-classics-free-theme-more/feed/51http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/swtheme.jpg2.41Digital Distribution Manager, Sony Network Entertainment510Making The Mark of Kri, Coming to PSN Tuesdayhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/09/20/making-the-mark-of-kri-coming-to-psn-tuesday/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/09/20/making-the-mark-of-kri-coming-to-psn-tuesday/#commentsFri, 20 Sep 2013 18:11:12 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=116098Editor’s Note: Beloved PS2 Classic The Mark of Kri will be available on PS3 via PlayStation Store next Tuesday, so we reached out to the game’s Executive Producer, Jonathan Beard, to ask for some stories and insights from its development. He responded in kind, with one of the most detailed write-ups in PlayStation.Blog history, and a bevy of heretofore unseen concept art. Enjoy.

In the early 2000’s, I had taken over the role of studio director at SCEA San Diego, and moved from Foster City with some key members of the Blasto team. Tim Neveu who was the lead artist on Blasto was given the chance to produce his first game. Tim and I had known each other for a while and shared a lot of the same interests. We often discussed classic games and were alligned on the kind of game we wanted to make – a “fantasy” game – big guy and a sword, maybe an axe.

We were both fans of the original C64 “Barbarian” game, and loved how satisfying it was (even on an 8 bit system) to decapitate your foe. We wanted to make a game that had very real reactions to being hit with a heavy peice of sharpened steel. Animated gratuitous violence, and no blue sparkles for blood.

We were big fans of John Milius’ original Conan the Barbarian movie and liked the idea of what we called “plausable fantasy”. This was pre Lord of the Rings trilogy, so Conan was one of the only great fantasy movies – in our opinion everything else was pretty much pure cheese.

We wanted to make a game in the fantasy genre that didn’t smack of Dungeons and Dragons influences. Something like the original Conan movie – clearly fantasy, but with some plausibility to it. No lizard people, no flaming swords.

These elements were the starting point for The Mark of Kri, or as it was originally called: Barbarian.

Unfortunately, after a year or so of PS1 development the game was struggling. This was in part because we were pushing the limits of the hardware; but there was also something missing – it was like we had a few nice chords, maybe even a riff, but no song…

Around this time, Shuhei took over development at PlayStation and became interested in the game. Despite its problems, Shu and I agreed that it had potential. So we decided to keep working on it – but to shift development over to the yet-to-be-released PS2. This was all done with the understanding that I would become more actively involved in the game’s design and production.

One of the first issues that I had with the game was its combat. We were frustrated with other established combat systems and wanted to radically change how combat could work in a game. We referred to these old systems as “focal attack systems” – where the player was required to aim his character in order to attack. We felt that when the player was required to physically “steer” his character to attack something, it created slow, frustrating battles, and in no way simulated dexterous combat – kind of like doing a three-point turn to hit the guy behind you.
In The Mark of Kri, we aimed for a combat system where the player could hit multiple enemies from all directions with the dexterity and fluidity normally seen in Kung-fu movies. We felt that by removing the need to orientate yourself during combat we would really speed up our game and allow for a dynamic camera.

I pulled some team members into my office one day and showed them Fantavision. I felt we could translate the selection system they used into a fighting game, thus removing the need to physically turn the player. So after a series of long brainstorming sessions, we emerged with an interesting idea of how to handle combat in 3D space. Now we just had to make it work.

Dan Mueller had a long background playing and writing guides for fighting games, such as Tekken. Erik Medina, who is an extremely talented animator, was also a fighting game afficionado (and a mean MK2 player). Rich Karp is an amazing engineer with a deep understanding of what makes games work. These guys worked closely on the problem of making the combat and animation work. What followed was a lot of back and forth between the designers, animators and engineers to manufacture seamless 360 degree combat and a dynamic camera system that complemented the action.

Without this energetic collaboration between design, animation and engineering, the combat — the heart of the game — would not have worked.

The quality of hand animation was an early decision. We wanted the player to look like a badass while playing the game. So the animation, and the crazy kill moves, became very important to the overall experience. Erik, Dan and the team of animators could often be seen acting out the kill moves, sometimes with hilarious consequences.

The team was having fun, and we felt that we were starting to make something fun.

Tim Neveu and I had both worked on Blasto together, where we explored a bold art style. With Mark of Kri we wanted to do something visually fresh, not chase realism like most other games out there.

Tim has a great eye for talent, and had hired Eric Medina and Jeff Merghart for “Barbarian.” They had been monkeying around (Tim’s term) with art styles, and something that was starting to gel was the art direction, a kind of “animated” look – which at the time no one had really done well.

The art style is reminiscent of the painted look people associate with 2D animated feature films, and we studied a good number of these early on in development. We had six animators in total on the game with varied levels of movie experience; these guys injected the life into the characters, but were also responsible for a great many visual and cinematic decisions made in the game.

They brought a simple philosophy to the team: Everything should be done with one thing in mind — entertainment.

We wanted the player to look good at playing the game, and feel good about how he looked when playing it. You know, when someone’s playing a game and his buddies are pushing him to hand over the controller because the game looks that much fun to play. That reaction was our ultimate goal.

As the gameplay and animated violence started to come together, a juxtoposition formed between the gratuitous nature of the combat and the animated art style.

This was the song that we had been looking for…

Shu recognized strengths in the game that others were at times against – such as the art style, and the over-the-top animated violence. He was immediately into the combat system and liked where it was going, but as things started to come together it became apparent that we needed other gameplay mechanics besides hacking and slashing.

We started to think of each combat scenario as a puzzle, and we gave the player tools that could be used to solve them. Rau had a sword, Taiha, and axe; we then added a bow. Being able to sneak into an enemy camp made more strategic sense than just running in swinging an axe. It also offered an interesting gameplay variant that complemented the frenetic nature of the combat. Making a three hundred pound warrior look stealthy, however, was a monumental challenge – a challenge that our amazing animators were up for. They gave him a bunch of outrageous silent kills, which ended up becoming some of my favorites in the game. The neck break, for example, became a defining moment in the game that everyone loved.

Ok, maybe not everyone. Some wanted to pull stealth out and remove the violence – replacing the blood with sparkles or the like. Shu quickly came to our aid; He saw the potential and supported us all the way. It was clear that he cared first and foremost about quality and pushed to get the best game possible. Frankly, the game would not have been the same without his support.

We continued to think of the game as a puzzle game, or a thinking man’s combat game. We looked for ways to add more tools to support this idea. One was to give Rau a familiar. Initially we talked about giving him a wolf, or a wolverine, but settled instead on a beautiful blackbird. “Kuzo” came from a need to scout ahead around corners; but he proved to be one of our strongest storytelling tools.

The fiction and world were starting to come together, but Erik and I were growing concerned with how we could deliver all of this information to the player. Cinematics were expensive – one quote came back at nearly a million bucks! We had to come up with an inexpensive and elegant solution to help tell our story.

I had started at SCEA many years before as a concept artist, so I was somewhat familiar with the art software on the market. I had been playing around with Painter and discovered that you could record your brush strokes. I did a quick test, recording myself sketching Rau. I showed it to Tim, Erik and Jeff and suggested that we sketch out our cinematics, and fade into the game. After a couple more tests we got it working (using Jeff’s amazing art). We called these our “bookends,” and used the technique to sketch in or out of the gameplay. They worked, they were inexpensive, and we didn’t need to outsource our cinematics – allowing for greater creative control.

It’s interesting to think that the cinematics were done this way because of financial, time, and creative restrictions, yet ended up being one of the key visual elements in the game. Funny how things work out.

When we started writing the story, I watched Conan back to back a few times – and realized that if the hero rarely speaks, his personality and stoic nature explode off the screen. Conversely, in movies where the warrior archetype chats along merrily, he loses his mystery, his mojo and his strength.

I personally hate wisecracking warriors – so there were no jokes and minimum dialogue for Rau.

Tim, Erik and I talked a great deal about the story. We loved the narration in Conan – how it felt like an epic story was being told. So that’s how I approached writing it: later generations looking back. A grand saga, told by an ancient witness to its events… It was also nice that narration is one of the most flexible ways to craft a story. :)

We always viewed The Mark of Kri as a complete creative experience, and everything we put into the game was placed with purpose, to support its story and its characters.

To us, the music and the voice talent for the game were as creatively critical as any other element. We listened to dozens and dozens of actors before making a choice. We avoided strong “American” accents as they seemed too modern. We also sat in on and directed every line in the game – probably driving our audio team crazy.

When I first started to hear musical samples, I was blown away. It was awe-inspiring. Chuck Doud brought his incredible talents to the team and genuinely cared about how the music matched The Mark of Kri’s mood – rising in tempo as the action picked up, and slowing back down for stealth segments. He worked very hard to get it right, and was key in making it all fit together – without a strong score, games and movies seem lifeless. Chuck made sure that every moment of the game felt alive. Dan is also an accomplished musician, so he and Chuck collaborated to bring many interesting elements into the score, such as Ben Watkins (Juno Reactor), and even some chanting Tibetan monks.

Everyone got involved with focus testing. As the game came together, I watched over 700 hours of gameplay footage – we even made a wall out of videotapes in the office. The team shared a genuine love for this game.

We were proud of what we accomplished, and all the nominations and accolades it received felt great. It’s testament to the game that even after all these years we’re still asked about The Mark of Kri.

Shu was a critical factor in this game coming together – that cannot be understated. He had my back, and allowed us the time to make and correct our mistakes. I have been making games for 24 years, and the development of The Mark of Kri remains one of my happiest, most fulfilling periods, largely in part because of the amazing team that I was lucky enough to work with – wonderfully enthusiastic professionals – but also because of the incredible culture at that time within SCEA.

We had been allowed the time to create an expansive world with language, history, and myth. While designing and creating The Mark of Kri, we also kept in mind where its next chapters might lead. We expanded on the world and fiction in the sequel Rise of the Kasai, but we always felt that the world had many more stories to tell.

Thanks to the Mark of Kri team, everyone involved in developing the game, SCEA, and – of course – Shu.

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/09/20/making-the-mark-of-kri-coming-to-psn-tuesday/feed/51http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/markofkri.jpg4.3Executive Producer, The Mark of Kri510Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Out Now on PSNhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/01/29/grand-theft-auto-vice-city-out-now-on-psn/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/01/29/grand-theft-auto-vice-city-out-now-on-psn/#commentsTue, 29 Jan 2013 23:04:40 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=96150PS2 Classics collection.
That’s the original game in digital form, and to complete the nostalgia, we’ve made the map that was originally packed in the game box available as a hi-res jpeg for you to print out and peruse next time you’re lost in Little Havana. We’ve also got the maps for GTAIII and San Andreas, both of which are already available to download from PS Store.
Ten years have passed since Vice City was originally released on PlayStation 2.]]>

That’s the original game in digital form, and to complete the nostalgia, we’ve made the map that was originally packed in the game box available as a hi-res jpeg for you to print out and peruse next time you’re lost in Little Havana. We’ve also got the maps for GTAIII and San Andreas, both of which are already available to download from PS Store.

Ten years have passed since Vice City was originally released on PlayStation 2. Over at the Rockstar Newswire, we’ve been casting an eye back and celebrating that anniversary with a series of features and never-before-released peeks behind the digital curtain of the game’s development.

One of these was a three-part series of interactive Flash features showcasing the game’s Animation, Sound and City Design. ‘The Lab’, as the series is known, was originally exhibited at London’s Design Museum when they nominated the game for their ‘biggest contribution to design in 2002’ award. This is the first time it has been made widely available online.

Click on the images below to check them out, but bear in mind they’re Flash so they may not work if you’re reading this on mobile.

We hope you enjoy revisiting Vice City on PS3. Look out for more classic Rockstar titles arriving on PSN in the next few weeks.

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/01/29/grand-theft-auto-vice-city-out-now-on-psn/feed/52http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/vicecity.jpg3.74526Crafting the Horrifying World of Siren, Out on PSN Tuesdayhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/01/10/crafting-the-horrifying-world-of-siren-out-on-psn-tuesday/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/01/10/crafting-the-horrifying-world-of-siren-out-on-psn-tuesday/#commentsThu, 10 Jan 2013 16:00:16 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=94764SIREN project started in the autumn months of the new 21st century. I was very fortunate to have been surrounded by a very talented team of people on my team. Together with Game Director Keiichiro Toyama, Scenario Writer Naoko Sato, and Art Director Isao Takahashi, I sat down to discuss concepts. We then extended the discussions to excellent creators both internally and externally for a collaborative production effort.
We were on a mission to formulate a form of fear or horror that would resonate with an audience regardless of their cultural background, and to deliver that from a very intentionally Japanese perspective. Thorough studies sprung our inspirations, which then became our core for producing SIREN. No room for compromise, but plenty of room for the sense of playful creativity, we progressed to develop a Japanese Modern Horror that could reach out and be appreciated by the world.]]>

The SIREN project started in the autumn months of the new 21st century. I was very fortunate to have been surrounded by a very talented team of people on my team. Together with Game Director Keiichiro Toyama, Scenario Writer Naoko Sato, and Art Director Isao Takahashi, I sat down to discuss concepts. We then extended the discussions to excellent creators both internally and externally for a collaborative production effort.

We were on a mission to formulate a form of fear or horror that would resonate with an audience regardless of their cultural background, and to deliver that from a very intentionally Japanese perspective. Thorough studies sprung our inspirations, which then became our core for producing SIREN. No room for compromise, but plenty of room for the sense of playful creativity, we progressed to develop a Japanese Modern Horror that could reach out and be appreciated by the world. The feeling of hopelessness caused by close ones, who, one by one are transformed into your enemy, the dreadful or creepy feeling of seeing yourself through the eyes of others, and an environment unique to SIREN that pulled you right in all led to the bloodcurdling experience that only a game could take you through.

SIREN enjoyed a worldwide release along with sequential releases, and expansions into a movie, novel and other forms of multimedia, something that I along with the team are very grateful for. The most memorable moment was being approached by the master of horror movies, Sam Raimi, with an offer to make a movie based on SIREN. I must say this was a very rewarding moment for all of us who had worked very hard to make SIREN what it was.

I am delighted that SIREN will be published on PSN. Over time, SIREN is now re-introduced to a whole new audience. It is gratifying to know the experience can potentially reach out even further. This not only makes me happy, I am sure this will be quite motivating for everyone who was involved in the SIREN project to further excel in what they do in hope of delivering new and exciting content.

How long can you withstand the world of SIREN?

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/01/10/crafting-the-horrifying-world-of-siren-out-on-psn-tuesday/feed/78http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/siren.jpg4.29Former Executive Producer & Vice President, WWS Japan Studio784Behind the Classics: Jak & Daxterhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/24/behind-the-classics-jak-daxter/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/24/behind-the-classics-jak-daxter/#commentsFri, 24 Aug 2012 15:08:57 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=83285Behind The Classics. Every fortnight (well, that’s the plan at least), we’ll be talking to the creative force behind a vintage PS One or PlayStation 2 title. To kick things off, Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin was kind enough to lend us his time to discuss the making of seminal 2001 PS2 platformer Jak & Daxter.
We’ve got the next few entries in the series lined up, but please feel free to leave your suggestions for future interview subjects below. Manage your expectations – these people aren’t always easy to track down – but we’ll do our best.]]>

When I took over the SCEE PlayStation Blog a month or two back, I promised you a few new regular features. Today, I’m happy to unveil the first of them: Behind The Classics. Every fortnight (well, that’s the plan at least), we’ll be talking to the creative force behind a vintage PS One or PlayStation 2 title. To kick things off, Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin was kind enough to lend us his time to discuss the making of seminal 2001 PS2 platformer Jak & Daxter.

We’ve got the next few entries in the series lined up, but please feel free to leave your suggestions for future interview subjects below. Manage your expectations – these people aren’t always easy to track down – but we’ll do our best.

Anyway, without further ado, over to Andy…

What was the original concept for the game? Was it a deliberate attempt to create a PlayStation 2 mascot to rival Crash Bandicoot?
Andy Gavin: Of course we wanted the franchise to be as big – or bigger – than Crash. And while this didn’t quite come to be, it was certainly our goal.

The formulation of new game ideas involves two aspects: genre and style. As to gameplay genre: on the PS One, good-looking, free roaming 3D seemed impossible. The machine lacked any hardware sorting or clipping, and had a relatively low polygon count. Plus, the AI challenge of creating a camera that didn’t leave players feeling queasy was extremely daunting. So we locked down the viewpoint to improve graphics and focus on traditional Donkey Kong Country-style gameplay.

But with Mario 64, Miyamoto showed that free roaming was possible, albeit on the N64 and with no small dose of camera frustration. By the time we began Jak & Daxter in January 1999 newer games like Banjo-Kajooie vastly improved the playability. Clearly, on the PS2, full 3D could be great.

Did you draw inspiration from anywhere in particular for the game’s look and feel?
Andy Gavin: With Crash we enjoyed enormous worldwide success in no small part due to our collaboration with Sony’s worldwide producers. So for Jak & Daxter we set out to create a character and environment that merged elements from worldwide cultures. You can see the result in Jak, who is a hybrid of Western cartoons and Eastern manga. We asked every Naughty Dog artist to spend a couple of days sketching concepts for the look of the game. We threw these on a giant table and picked elements we liked as a group.

It was an ambitious title for its time. What were the biggest challenges in realising your original vision?
Andy Gavin: Like every first-on-a-system Naughty Dog game, Jak had a rocky development. First of all, the PS2 was difficult to program, particularly in those early days when no workable examples or libraries existed. On top of that, I made the audacious choice to write the entire game in a programming language of my own design called GOAL, creating a brand new compiler and debugger from scratch. In addition, to realise the ambitious graphical goals, we invented a roster of brand new technologies: several different level of detail systems, perhaps 10 rendering engines, seamless loading from DVD, advanced runtime physics and joint animation systems to rival the offline tools. It was really, really crazy and basically took us about 20 months just on the engineering side before the engine was able to produce the kind of levels we wanted.

Can you tell me more about the mooted third character and why it was axed?
Andy Gavin: There never were any serious plans for a third character. But we had more ambitious plans for Daxter in the beginning. He was supposed to be able to hop off your shoulder and run around and do stuff. That didn’t happen until the second game. Same with the vehicle stuff. We squeezed the racer in, but barely, and we had much more aggressive plans for it.

How close to your original concept was the finished game?
Andy Gavin: Very close. We wanted to put you into this beautiful, fully-rendered fantasy world and yet allow full interactive exploration. We wanted no loading, elaborate storytelling, a camera you didn’t need to manually control, and both classic platform and vehicle gameplay.

Which element of the game are you most proud of?
Andy Gavin: I’m both most proud and most torn over GOAL, my custom language and development environment. This ended up being so much harder than I thought, and is certainly the most sophisticated programming I’ve done in my career. In the end it was pretty awesome, although not without its quirks. I’m also supremely proud of our completely load-free seamless-world. We were the first to do this – I even have a patent on it – and few have attempted it since. It was a lot of work!

And let’s not forget Jak’s control, which I personally programed. Jak has really good control, as good as any game ever. His animation is incredibly fluid, yet he is supremely responsive to both the player and the environment. Even basic elements of his control system were written and re-written a dozen times.

How would you like the first Jak & Daxter to be remembered? What did it bring to the video game medium?
Andy Gavin: The single most important thing that it brought to the medium – and there are countless smaller things – is its consistent and complete integration of the game and story elements. This comes to full fruition in Jak 2, and continues peerlessly today in newer Naughty Dog games like Uncharted. Jak has a detailed and involved story, but it’s never a semi-interactive movie, it’s a video game! The storytelling does not come at the expense of the gameplay.

Which of Naughty Dog’s PlayStation characters – Crash, Jak & Daxter, or Nathan Drake – is closest to your heart?
Andy Gavin: Crash and Neo Cortex are my favorites, and I also have a really big sweet spot for Daxter, who is such a hoot. The Uncharted characters are awesome too, but I can’t take any responsibility for them, so the connection isn’t as personal. And don’t get me wrong, I love all of my babies, even back to the forgotten ones like Keef the Thief, but really Crash’s wicked orange grin melts my heart, and Cortex is who I secretly wanted to be… If I were a cartoon :-)

More Behind the Classics

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/24/behind-the-classics-jak-daxter/feed/56http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/7844697934_e89ebac6f5_b.jpg4.26SCEE Blog Manager560Psychonauts Coming to PS2 Classics This Tuesdayhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/23/psychonauts-coming-to-ps2-classics-this-tuesday/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/23/psychonauts-coming-to-ps2-classics-this-tuesday/#commentsThu, 23 Aug 2012 20:50:30 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=83177Double Fine's first game, and it came out for the PlayStation 2 way back in 2005. We love it a lot. It's the story of a gifted young psychic cadet who must delve deep into dangerous minds and put a stop to a sinister conspiracy. And on August 28th, you will be able to download it to your PlayStation 3 as a PlayStation 2 Classic.
If you never played Psychonauts, you're in for a treat! If you played it before, why not buy it again, just for old time's sake? Ha ha! Tell a friend or two or a hundred.]]>First things first: Psychonauts is coming to PlayStation 2 Classics.

…Okay, that’s only one thing. But it’s super important.

Psychonauts was Double Fine‘s first game, and it came out for the PlayStation 2 way back in 2005. We love it a lot. It’s the story of a gifted young psychic cadet who must delve deep into dangerous minds and put a stop to a sinister conspiracy. And on August 28th, you will be able to download it to your PlayStation 3 as a PlayStation 2 Classic.

If you never played Psychonauts, you’re in for a treat! If you played it before, why not buy it again, just for old time’s sake? Ha ha! Tell a friend or two or a hundred.

“So, what took so long?” you may ask. Well, you’d be in fine company for asking. As internet user @smushums66 requested, “Psychonauts PSN title or PS2 classic PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

These are just a few of the seemingly infinite requests for Psychonauts PS3 we receive on a daily basis. And as it turns out, we do love free money! (Preferably in cash-stuffed envelopes slid under the office door.) But to truly become a PlayStation 2 Classic, we wanted to ensure Psychonauts had all the time it needed to grow into its status as a classic, like a fine artisanal Tuscan cheese. But less smelly.

Now, nearly seven years after its original release, that time has come. In five days, I mean. So get ready. Prepare yourself. Warm up your console. Recharge your controller. Do some thumb exercises (is that a thing??). Fortify your funnybone. Tune up your heartstrings. Clean off your credit card. Brace yourself for Psychonauts.

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/23/psychonauts-coming-to-ps2-classics-this-tuesday/feed/95http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/lead_psycho.jpg4.25Community Manager, Double Fine Productions953War of the Monsters Hits PSN Tomorrow, Development Retrospectivehttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/07/30/war-of-the-monsters-hits-psn-tomorrow-development-retrospective/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/07/30/war-of-the-monsters-hits-psn-tomorrow-development-retrospective/#commentsMon, 30 Jul 2012 22:23:18 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=80960work-appropriate hot monster action. Get your minds out of the gutter!
We didn't just have a ton of fun making the War of the Monsters -- we were very happy with how the finished product turned out. The game was ridiculously fun to play, and players around the world loved it! So when Jeff pinged me the other day to tell me that War of the Monsters is going to be released as a PS2 Classic on the PS3 I was crazy-excited. Of course, I wanted to write a quick post!]]>About a billion years ago, I worked on a PS2 game called War of the Monsters. In fact, it was my first game as a producer — I had the luxury of working with a great team and together we made a really awesome and unique fighting game. War of the Monsters was built on the theme of vintage monster B-movies, with mega-crap-loads of building destruction and tons of hot monster-on-monster action! But totally work-appropriate hot monster action. Get your minds out of the gutter!

We didn’t just have a ton of fun making the War of the Monsters — we were very happy with how the finished product turned out. The game was ridiculously fun to play, and players around the world loved it! So when Jeff pinged me the other day to tell me that War of the Monsters is going to be released as a PS2 Classic on the PS3 I was crazy-excited. Of course, I wanted to write a quick post!

The first thing I did was dig through some of my old archives and find some really cool old artwork from back when we were developing War of the Monsters. The image below is something I put together during the game’s production to summarize the core combat mechanics in the game. We used it internally to make sure everyone on the team understood the basics of game’s combat. What’s really cool is that now, almost a decade later, you can look at this combat sheet and still get a quick overview of the game before you download it from the PlayStation Store tomorrow.

Here’s another cool image I found. It’s an early color comp I created to show the team how we were going to reference old movie posters to develop our color and lighting palette, and how we’d adapt it for our game environments. Man, I’m having fun digging through all my old files. Thanks, Jeff!

These were internal docs, so cut me some slack on their style. When you’re preparing materials for internal studio communication it’s often not as flashy or super-produced like you might see from a full-up marketing team. And hey, this stuff is almost a decade old!

Oh snap, check these out! These are the level-loading screens for each of the battles when you play through single player battle mode! These were all painted by a super-talented artist by the name of Owen Richardson, who also worked with Dave Jaffe and Scott Campbell on the new Twisted Metal for PS3.

Here’s another bit of trivia: Bet you didn’t know that I also did some 3D modeling on War of the Monsters too — back in those days everyone had to do a bit of everything! This is Preytor; I had a great time modeling and texturing him. He’s a massive praying mantis with a nimble fighting style, and one of only two monsters in the game with the ability to fly.

It’s crazy to look back on War of the Monsters and see those low-poly, low-res PS2 graphics — a reminder of how far we’ve come with the PS3. One thing remains the same though: great gameplay is timeless. Luckily, War of the Monsters is super-fun to play and holds up nicely. I hope you all download this PS2 Classic from your PS3 on Tuesday when the Store Update goes live!

And in case you were wondering, we are still totally hard at work on Starhawk! We have a ton of stuff ready for release very soon — including our 1.3 Update, which has a bunch of new features and fixes, as well as the awesome (and free) Cypress Map Pack! Here’s a sneak-peek at a couple screen shots of Cypress, but check back here on the blog real soon for a complete breakdown of the Starhawk 1.3 Update, as well as more in-depth info on the new free map pack!